On the Market: When Building a Home Arcade Breaks Up Your Engagement

Mayor de Blasio has yet to select a new DOB commissioner, but he is narrowing in on a new chairman for the Board of Standards and Appeals, Crain’s reports. Rumor has it that Edison Properties honcho Anthony Borelli is a favorite, though “some developers wondered whether Mr. Borelli would leave his job for one of the less glamorous land-use positions in city government.” The word, however, is that the city may carve out a larger role for the BSA that would allow it to play a meaningful role in the city’s upcoming rezoning attempts.

One man thought he was living the dream when he transformed the Murray Hill apartment he owns into a 1980s-style arcade after moving in with his fiancee. But sometimes pursuing one dream means giving up on another. In this case marriage: the man’s fiancee left him in the midst of his totally awesome renovation, the New York Daily News reports. Now he sleeps on a futon covered with Ninja Turtle sheets, but at least he’s learned an important lesson: “Do not work on your arcade more than your relationship.”

Here’s a happy ending to a romantic rift: The Wall Street Journal chronicles the relationship and real estate history of David Sterling and Nora Lavori. The couple, who in 1979 bought the Orleans, a grand apartment hotel on Columbus Avenue, and slowly restored and redeveloped it into more and more lavish rentals as the neighborhood’s fortunes improved, divorcing along the way but remaining friends, business partners and building residents, are now planning a condo conversion. As ever, they will take on all tasks involved themselves.

Gowanus might be losing one of its landmarks, Gothamist reports: the iconic Kentile Floors sign. Scaffolding has gone up around the sign and a DOB permit was issued in April to “remove existing structure and sign by hand off roof.” Something else disappearing in Gowanus? Whole Foods’ bid for a license to serve liquor at their rooftop beer garden, according to DNAinfo. The hipster-yuppie haven had hoped to serve hard liquor on location, but CB6 objected, saying that Whole Foods has yet to prove itself a good neighbor and the grocer withdrew the application.

Flippers are trying to screw over house hunters in Clinton Hill, listing a Romanesque Revival townhouse that they bought for $950,000 in April for $1 million more—or $1.995 million,Brownstoner reports. The house itself, at 245 Greene Avenue, is a stunner, but it’s also a wreck, and whatever greedy bastard bought under an LLC is certainly not deserving of a 100 percent profit margin for having held onto it for a month.

Citibank has prevailed in a bid to revive a $285 million mortgage-securities settlement with the SEC, Bloomberg News (via Crain’s) reports. A U.S. District Judge had slapped down the settlement before, complaining that he had no basis on which to decide if the settlement was fair and it did not require Citibank to admit to any wrong-doing.